Compass digs in heels on ‘seller choice’ amid legal wrangling
The brokerage continues to position office exclusives as pro-consumer, but declined to elaborate on what it hopes to gain through its lawsuit against NWMLS.
Key points:
- Rory Golod, the president of growth and communications at Compass, told Real Estate News the company is committed to “seller choice” to list off the MLS.
- While NWMLS rules preventing pre-marketing have stymied Compass’ efforts in Seattle, the brokerage has been expanding private exclusives in New York, D.C. and Austin.
- A dispute with NWMLS escalated to a lawsuit in April, entangling a former Compass-affiliated MLS board member who said they don’t want to be involved.
Compass isn't backing down from its messaging on "seller choice" and its belief in private exclusives, despite the escalating fight over pre-marketing in Seattle and the growing chorus of industry leaders who argue that a push for private inventory could lead to negative consequences for the housing market and consumers.
Rory Golod, Compass' president of growth and communications, discussed the brokerage's latest progress with its 3-phase marketing strategy — an approach that starts with private exclusives and ends with listing on the MLS — and the company's philosophy on seller choice, but he shied away from elaborating on Compass' antitrust suit against Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which has entangled Seattle-based franchisor Windermere as well as a Compass agent.
'No homeowner is saying I want less choice'
At the core of Compass' marketing strategy is its private exclusives channel, which now has nearly 10,000 listings nationwide, Golod told Real Estate News this week. The effort has proven to be controversial, with critics asserting that an industry-wide shift toward private inventory would reduce market transparency, lead to potential fair housing issues and put smaller, independent brokerages at a disadvantage.
But Golod said the detractors have it wrong, and Compass is actually looking out for consumers' best interests.
"No homeowner is saying I want less choice. No homeowner is saying I want less sophisticated marketing. No homeowner is saying I want more negative insights — I want disadvantages. They're all saying the opposite. They want choice. They want advantages," Golod said, claiming that sellers are the ones asking for pre-marketing.
Ultimately, "94% of private exclusives eventually list on the MLS," Golod noted, saying that "sellers are overwhelmingly choosing to bring their listings to the market" after a period of pre-marketing. Golod said homes that go through the 3-phase marketing strategy sell for 2.9% higher than those that list on the MLS on day one, though the value of pre-marketing and private listings has been disputed by reports from Zillow and Bright MLS.
Trouble in Washington state
Compass has been successfully building its inventory of private exclusives in high-demand markets like New York, D.C., Austin and Southern California, and is working to integrate inventory controlled by Chicago-based @properties — which Compass acquired earlier this year — so that agents within both brokerages can easily access the listings, Golod said.
But in the Seattle area, the company has faced challenges due to NWMLS's rules against pre-marketing. Compass' dispute with the broker-owned MLS escalated this month when the brokerage filed an antitrust suit against NWMLS, alleging anticompetitive practices, retaliation via a brief IDX suspension and harm to Compass clients.
In the weeks leading up to the suit, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin repeatedly attacked NWMLS, saying the organization was controlled by Windermere, the region's largest franchisor with six affiliated brokers on the MLS board. Windermere Co-President OB Jacobi has ridiculed the claim and questioned why Compass has not sought to obtain more board seats and work to change MLS rules from within. While not named as a defendant in the complaint, Windermere was referenced multiple times as a "co-conspirator."
As far as the motivation behind the lawsuit and the outcome Compass is hoping for, Golod declined to elaborate. "Obviously I can't comment on pending litigation," he said, reiterating his key message: "What I can say is that we are 100% focused on seller choice."
The agent 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'
Reffkin's issue with the NWMLS board also made its way into the 39-page complaint, which referenced the resignation of the brokerage's lone board member. Compass lawyers wrote in the filing that the member had resigned "in protest of NWMLS's anticompetitive and tortious conduct."
However, Tabata Perron, the Compass-affiliated broker who joined the NWMLS board in January and resigned on March 24, told Real Estate News that her resignation was misrepresented in the April 25 complaint. Perron, who was not specifically named in the suit but was listed in the announcement of the 2025 board appointments, said she had not been approached by Compass executives or lawyers before the complaint was filed.
"I don't know how I got dragged into it," she said. "I feel like I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," adding that she does not want to be involved in the legal battle between the organizations.
A spokesperson for NWMLS said they "can emphatically confirm" that the statement in the Compass complaint "is not consistent" with Perron's "polite and professional communication" in her March resignation from the board. A Compass spokesperson said the company "looks out for its agents" and will "stand fully behind" Perron.